Why test frying oil quality?
How do these products work?
How many test kits are available?
What do the tests measure?
What are the advantages of the VERI-FRY® tests?
What are the benefits derived from using
the VERI-FRY® test kits?
Why test frying oil
quality?
Determining the quality, optimum handling, or time to
discard degraded frying oil minimizes production costs and improves
the quality and consistency of fried food.
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How do these products
work?
Warm oil is filled to a line on a disposable, plastic vial
containing a reagent gel. The reaction rapidly proceeds, and
the test's results are determined in a
colorimeter/spectrophotometer. The values are converted to
concentration units by reference to a chart.
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How many test kits
are available?
Four VERI-FRY®
tests provide for basic incoming inspection of oil, in-process
measurement of oil performance, and determination of overuse of the
oil with respect to ultimate food quality and compliance with
regulations and industry guidelines.
The VERI-FRY®
tests measure three different categories of oil quality:
| |
%TPM |
Total Polar
Materials |
| |
%FFA |
Free Fatty Acids in
two ranges (0.02-0.70%) and (0.20-3.2%) |
| |
ppm WET |
Water Emulsion
Titratables (soaps/moisture/surfactants) |
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What do the tests
measure?
The tests measure the factors that primarily contribute to
cooking efficiency, product quality, and shelf-life.
Scientists refer to these properties in terms of the following:
1. Heat and mass transfer between fryer and oil, and
between oil and food.
2. Flavor, color, and texture development of the food.
3. Oil resistance to degradation due to light, oxygen,
moisture, packaging, and re-heating.
TPM - Summarizes all aspects
of oil degradation.
-
Assures processed food quality
-
Reveals loading of particles and silt
-
Controls heat transfer
-
More thorough cooking
-
Better taste, smell and appearance
-
Fewer health related problems (less than 25% polar
compounds)
FFA - Measures changes in oil
that affect food quality over time.
-
Reduces oil rancidity, off-odor
-
Stabilizes taste profile
-
Anticipates shelf life of food
-
USDA requires meat and poultry be fried in oil of no
more than 2% FFA (use FFA-350)
-
Incoming inspection of oil and delicate snack frying
requires low percentage FFA (use FFA-75)
WET - Detects soaps and
surfactants that suspend water and salts.
-
Eliminates "too rapid cooking"
-
Decreases undercooking, microbial hazards
-
Reduces smoking oil, uneven cooking and foaming through
proper fryer sanitization and better maintenance of oils
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What are the
advantages of the VERI-FRY tests?
-
Solventless chemistry, safe, easy
-
Correlated to existing official methods
| %TPM |
AOCS Cd 20-91 |
| %FFA |
AOCS Ca 5a-40 |
| ppm WET |
AOCS Cc 17-79 |
-
Measure oil breakdown to laboratory standards of accuracy
-
Immediate results; less than 5 minutes to perform and
record, including sample preparation, no weighing
-
Less expensive than comparable laboratory procedures
-
Entire system is self-contained, portable, rapid, and
reproducible
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What are the
benefits derived from using the VERI-FRY test kits?
-
Quality of food is consistent
-
Better control of the frying system
-
Less waste -- less cost -- more profits
-
Can be used at-line, reducing costly shutdowns or work
stoppages
-
Environmentally safe -- No pollution or hazard worries in
disposing
-
Self-documenting, and Archival for QA
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